Shall this Blog be a channel to express my thoughts to You, my friend.

Oct 1, 2012

Of the Importance of Philosophy

Philosophical
thinking is something I do in my spare time as well as while working with the
young. I would like to share my philosophical insights more often with others
but frequently feel people lacking the inspiration or motivation to think
issues concerning us all, in depth at least.
It is not a rising trend either. We are more interested in practical
matters than metaphysical contemplations, which is understandable to some
degree. Who would want to question their whole existence or criticize the bases
of our human understanding? It would
drive us mad to doubt all beliefs about reality or to cut ourselves off from
the society we live in just because we happen to underrate its significance. But
why do we feel such repulsion against philosophy in the first place? Maybe it
has something to do with the assumption that people no longer need philosophy to
build up their dream lives. In my opinion the self-aware and world conscious individual
has turned into a myth. Today’s individual is a being without a true existence.
It has lost itself and become an irresolute and disorientated nomad, a lonely
soul, who searches peace and fulfillment finding only war and nothingness. Our
communal values have been sold to the highest bidder and replaced by the
ultimate freedom of choice. We can almost decide everything there is to decide
– by ourselves. This includes moral issues as well as choices made in everyday
life. We are slipping into nihilism just as Nietzsche predicted 100 years ago.

I feel that we have
done everything but looked back. Philosophy is much about history, and history
has produced ideas and theories how we should live and converse on the reality.
History also explains how we have come to this present situation. In antique
people used to think that public good serves also the good of the individual. Every
member of the society played their role and did what was expected of them.
Politics was a mean to improve the community’s rigour and increase its lifespan.
In Aristotle’s thinking individual´s
main purpose in life was to seek happiness by being virtuous and wise.
Afterwards many have seen in Aristotle a speaker for our time. Without having a
telos, a purpose for one´s existence, life becomes vague, immoral and
pointless.

In the renaissance period
man rediscovered himself and reason was raised as a ruling principle to conduct
life and to find an absolute certainty in how things were. I consider a French
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) to be one of the most intellectual thinker in
the history of philosophy. He believed certainty to be an illusion; instead he
chose to be a skeptic. Montaigne saw only a little point in people´s constant
desire to be right in everything they say. Because of this obsession Europe was
in a state of turmoil that Montaigne despised. People want to believe that certainty
is something veridical; our own impression is always the right one. Maybe this
is also suits as a depiction of today’s views. People are not willing to admit that
they are dim and in many cases just simply wrong; the world just isn’t how we
want it to be.

In 1700s marched in
the mighty Enlightment. Sapere aude (use your wit; dare to be wise) worked as a
command to a man to release him from a self-incurred tutelage. Liberalism
was also a prodigy born out of that time. Science and criticism were ways to
replace constraining religious beliefs surrounding human condition. Political philosophy
also started to create theories concerning themes like liberty, law, rights and
property. Reason was a tool of power as well as emancipation from false truths.

1800s was a triumph
of positivist reason – until it led to a crisis agitated by few strong
philosophical figures, mainly German born Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. They
hailed emotions and attacked verbally against reason claiming it to be feeble. Existentialism
showed individual how to look inside one´s self and find a meaning (or
absurdity) from within. It has given also a lot to me; expeditions to one´s own
head are more than encouraged in order to truly know who this subject behind everything
is. We have to courageously believe in our own judgment but at the same time
accept our high probability to be stupid. At the same time at least for me is
easy to understand that life is something delicate and it ends eventually. Life
is an open concept and there are no compulsions. Sometimes the extremism behind
true existentialism gives me a hard time because it can make things feel
indifferent.

1900s brought us
wars and demise but it also introduced us a whole new subject.This unique
person is an individual in every
sense of the word. There are no no-limits or ethical boundaries whatsoever. Many
philosophers in 1900s think that crisis of mankind is an inevitable result
caused by change in our thinking and behavior. It has also lots to do with the
“progress” which many see as a normal evolution of man. Once a man on the radio
said that progress is natural. It naturally is easy to go behind evolution
argument. I personally feel that mankind is not necessarily meant to find all
the answers or break all the barriers found in nature. Maybe we have already
crossed our natural constitute. We cherish our glossy and petty lives and value
our achievements by using perverted and usually materialistic indicators. And
our self-centered life is everything there is, according to many; so we should
make the best out of it. This has led to a western world where moral ideals
have died and civilizations have turned into fiction, as Leo Strauss
(1899-1973) points out. Our lives are more about ourselves than others; every
man for himself!

I like to believe
that philosophy has lot´s to do with our pursuit of happiness. But is our telos or goal for life twisted? We like
to think ourselves as someone who makes a difference but the recent difference
made has been for the worse. And because people have become less critical and
more easily manipulated they feel that truth can reveal itself just by looking
and not by thinking. Marx insisted that philosophy should always aim to change
the world, not just to depict it. That is why philosophy will be important
cause is never just about speculating; it is all about acting and living up to
your values (supported by philosophical consciousness). In my life I try to
maintain a philosophical twist - and it means that philosophy genuinely moves
me.

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About Me

Concerned world citizen who is worried about the world today, tries to be an all-around activist but so far without actual results. Curious spirit who likes to seek true knowledge and be able to contribute something to others. Sees himself as a philosophic weirdo who can still be friends with everyone.